790thSFS wrote:The raiders are primed for the Super Bowl this year, everyone knows it. Even Carr said Super Bowl or Bust. I just the defense can make some plays and not give up a shit ton of point like last year

Carr just signed a kings ransom contract and he hasn't even taken a snap in a playoff game or obviously won one. For all we know is he's a Peyton Manning in the playoffs and comes up small. We fans know this defense was garbage most games last season, couldn't get to the opposing QB, gave up more 40 yd plus plays than any team in football, many def holds and PI's and couldn't get off the field on 3rd down in many crucial situations of games. We didn't have anywhere near a Super bowl defense last year. A LOT has to change this year on defense for us to be legit SB contenders. Hopefully Pagano can help and we get some push on the inside to force their QB to be uncomfortable and release the ball quicker than he wants or throws it away. We had 25 fuckin sacks all of last year and 11 were by Mack!!! PATHETIC!!! To think Carr and our offense are going to score 30 points every game and the playoffs and bail out our defense and we sail to a Lombardi is a fuckin pipe dream!!! Coop and Crab can't be dropping balls and being invisible for stretches of the 2nd half of the season either. We HAVE to beat KC at least once to get that monkey off our back...shit we should sweep KC and Denver to prove a point. This organization has Vegas sealed and doesn't need to appease to the east bay rabid fanbase at all...hopefully they don't sit on their laurels. We should be good enough this year if our defense is much improved to get at least the 2nd seed in the conference and a bye week going into the playoffs like we should of gotten if Carr didn't go down. We lost 3 of our last 4 games including the playoffs last year. Not exactly finishing strong albeit Carr went down in week 16.

piratepride wrote:I think this team is capable of challenging for the right to go to the superbowl...but we ain't winning the Patriots come playoff time, let alone a high flying team like the Falcons. We need a few more peices, mainly a standout LB or three. We may have some better players at the DT spot than most of us think but we need more depth.

I feel like we'll win the division, but lose a few of the close games we won last year. So record wise I'm thinking 10-6.That said, if all goes right and the defense is better than any of us thought we'll go 13-3.

I REALLY don't think we have any good players at DT. Latham flashed some disruptive skills, had a pretty good game in our win over DEN. That's FAR from what we need to see to say he's a good player. And let's be honest with ourselves, Vanderdoes is more of a project than a starter.

I honestly think Denico Autry just might be the best DT we have on our roster. And that's not his primary position, and until Edwards gets off the trainer's table, we will NEED him at his primary position. So the DTs to me look fuckin atrocious. But I suppose some people think we can get the job done with a rotation of Ellis/Vanderdoes/Latham. That sounds to me like the worst law firm in the league.

Also, look at the DEs. With Edwards out injured, our DE roster looks like a steaming pile of horse shit with a diamond on top of it.

Unless we can have Edwards, Mack and Irvin in there all together most of the time, there won't be any QB pressure. They'll be free to throw the kitchen sink at Mack and just chip Irvin out of the pass plays because he has too much ground to cover.

We're going to need some exotic shit like safety blitzes (I think Karl could handle that) and switching in and out of the 3-4... We'll probably confuse our OWN players more than the opposition.

The DBs are going to be OK. Our front 7 is NOT going to be ok.

You know, just for the fuck of it we should stick Osemele at DT every now and then, see what he can do. I bet he could ball in that position. If nothing else, he could draw a lot of holding penalties.

Mario Edwards is the key here which had been grinding all off season and said himself he's working to be elite this uear. Initial reports on Twitter say was doing bag work and his hands looked violent. At his best he was rag-dolling fools making them look pathetic.Last year when he finally did suit up he was a shell of his old self. He has had an entire off season to get right, I'm hoping he brings it otherwise may as well cut his ass if he gets banged up again.The same can be said for denico Autry , he played last year with one arm basically. He broke his hand I think early in camp. Justin Ellis reported overweight and it showed all year. I haven't been reading up on him but I hope he slimmed down for our sake.Everyone knows khalil Mack and Irvin will bust ass so no surprises there.I like Cowser as a backup rotational player for now, but Latham and the other rookie should be serviceable in our system.

I'm high on Vanderdoes but it's all based on what I've read so far. We won't know what we have until after pre season.

We were 9-2 last year in one possession games last year and the worst PF to PA differential +31 in NFL history for a 12-4 team a year ago. Do we really expect that kind of record this year in one possession games if this defense isn't any better? DEFENSE has to be much better to fulfill our Super bowl aspirations!! Much better!! and our sked is tougher this year.

I was never confident last season in our defense especially going down the stretch. When Carr went down I knew our defense wasn't winning us any games in the playoffs and McGloin and or Cook weren't going to put any points on the board either. We can't expect Carr and our offense to put 27 to 34 points on the board this season in many games...Pagano and some of our younger players on defense have to step up!!!

FreddieB25 wrote:I was never confident last season in our defense especially going down the stretch. When Carr went down I knew our defense wasn't winning us any games in the playoffs and McGloin and or Cook weren't going to put any points on the board either. We can't expect Carr and our offense to put 27 to 34 points on the board this season in many games...Pagano and some of our younger players on defense have to step up!!!

Well, if Sean Smith is acting like shit oit there then we need at LEASE two rookies to go out and play like pro bowlers for us. One at MLB and one at CB.

FreddieB25 wrote:I was never confident last season in our defense especially going down the stretch. When Carr went down I knew our defense wasn't winning us any games in the playoffs and McGloin and or Cook weren't going to put any points on the board either. We can't expect Carr and our offense to put 27 to 34 points on the board this season in many games...Pagano and some of our younger players on defense have to step up!!!

Well, if Sean Smith is acting like shit oit there then we need at LEASE two rookies to go out and play like pro bowlers for us. One at MLB and one at CB.

Also, Corey James is going to be embarrassing to watch at OLB.

Wouldn't surprise me if Sean Smith is cut and or moved to LB in some packages and playing time reduced....same with Cory James...he's expendable...maybe we pick up some bodies off of preseason cuts from other teams.